An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
The Government Units Survey (GUS) is a part of the organizational component of the Census of Governments. The GUS is designed to collect information on the location and type of local governments and offices.
The Individual State Descriptions provides information about the organization of state and local governments. There is a separate summary for each state and the District of Columbia. The summaries are divided according to the five basic types of local governments. The Census Bureau established these five types for classifying government units— county, municipal, township, special district, and school district governments.
The data released in Summer 2023 will include the local government counts from the 2021 Government Units Survey (GUS). The 2022 Individual State Descriptions report will be available in Spring 2024.
Public releases in a Census year include electronic files and Internet tables:
Two federal statistical agencies–the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Federal Reserve Board–use the data to measure the nation's economic and financial performance. State and local governments use the data to develop programs and budgets, assess financial conditions, and perform comparative analyses.
In addition, analysts, economists, market specialists, and researchers need these data to measure the changing characteristics of the government sector of the economy and to conduct public policy research. Journalists report on, and teachers and students learn about, their governments' activities using our data. Internally, the Census Bureau uses these data as a benchmark for all our non-census year samples.
Share
Top